After ordering Frank to return to the store, Scarlett argues with Ashley about her decision to lease convicts for the lumber mill. Scarlett defends her decision pragmatically: using convicts is cost-effective. Ashley reasons on moral grounds: he fears that foreman Johnny Gallegher will whip and starve the ill-looking, underfed mill hands.

But a deeper fear drives Scarlett, and cut-rate convicts are merely her means to an end, as she reveals to Ashley: “I’m going to have money enough so the Yankees can never take Tara away from me! And I’m going to make it the only way I know how!”